Profiling of objects with dimensions up to a few tens of cm. at resolutions of a few microns falls between the ultra high precision required for example in the semiconductor industry, and that required for less exotic process control.

Typical applications include dental and medical work and paleobiology. In general, the requirement may be for either relatively few spot measurements which can be carried out manually, or an automatic profiling capability to provide large quantities of data rapidly.

Typical automatic techniques are laser triangulation and video autofocus profilers. However, in the case of triangulation, the laser spot size tends to generate a large "footprint" in the XY plane at ranges greater than a few mm, whilst using autofocus, failure can occur when the profile slope is high, i.e., when the object is too bumpy. In either technique, failure can also occur due to poor optical conditions, such as poor contrast or poor reflectivity.

The principle of the Reflex Microscope involves the use of the stereoscopic ability of the observer to pinpoint the "surface" of an image to within a few microns in the "Z" axis from a range of typically 65mm, with a "footprint" in the XY plane of 2µm by 2µm. This allows the examination of poor contrast objects with very bumpy topography, and also the examination of surfaces within liquids, and features within transparent specimens. Thus whilst it cannot provide large quantities of data rapidly, it will perform under conditions which will defeat alternative techniques, and is ideal for measuring three dimensional distances and angles on objects of irregular shape. It has the capability to move automatically to a series of preset positions facilitating the examination of numbers of similar specimens.

The microscope is provided with software developed for industrial metrology, and it can therefore be used as a small [bench-mounted] co-ordinate measuring machine.